April 2025 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of April 2025, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,354,670 members, i.e., 3,151 (0.13%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 76.7% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 19.4% and 3.9% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,011 new members, 4,852 (96.8%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,861 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in April amounted to EUR 142.4m (0.6% of net assets at end-March). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 31.3m (0.1% of net assets at end-March), rising by EUR 8.9m compared to the previous month.

At the end of April 2025, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 23.9bn, rising by EUR 104.2m (0.4%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 0.31% for category A, -0.06% for category B and 0.68% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 11.45% for category A, 7.87% for category B and 4.23% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.71% for Mirex A, 5.37% for Mirex B and 3.36% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of April, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.0bn (58.7% of total assets), making their share decrease by 1.0 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.2 p.p. on a monthly level, amounting to 23.2% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.5bn) at the end of April 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.1%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.1% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.3bn (9.7% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets decrease by 0.1 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 6.4% of the assets, or EUR 1.5bn, increasing by 1.4 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of April 2025, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.5% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.4%, making the number of members of these funds reach 425,463 and 50,184 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in April 2025 amounted to EUR 10.9m (0.7% of net assets at end-March), decreasing by 2.0% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 5.8m in April, increasing by 4.8% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 71.8%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 24.8%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.4% of total payments in April. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.7m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.4m were transferred for payment to pension insurance companies, while EUR 1.1m were paid in the form of lump-sum payments.

In April, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 2.4m (0.2% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.47bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -1.4% to 0.8%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 2.0% to 9.3%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 53.6% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.6% share and investment funds with a 10.2% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on the monthly basis by 0.4 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.59 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.1 p.p.

PENSION INSURANCE COMPANIES (PICs)

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, there were two pension insurance companies operating on the market and covering 18,570 and 4,115 users in the area of mandatory and voluntary pension insurance respectively. The total assets of the PICs amounted to EUR 568.4m at the end of the first quarter of 2025, rising by EUR 129.2m or 29.4% compared to the same period last year. Total profit of the PICs amounted to EUR 202 thousand at the end of the first quarter of 2025, rising by EUR 125 thousand or 160.8% compared to the same period last year.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In April 2025, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first four months of 2025 amounted to EUR 665.7m, i.e., 9.6% more that in the same period in 2024. EUR 106.7m (16.0%) of this amount related to life insurance premium (2.2% more than in the same period last year), while EUR 559.0m (84.40%) related to non-life insurance premium (11.1% more at an annual level). The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.3%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (19.5%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.5%) and health insurance (9.3%). The amount of claims settled in the first four months of 2025 reached EUR 401.5m, decreasing by 10.2% compared to same period in 2024. EUR 122.5m (30.5%) of this amount related to life insurance (29.3% less at an annual level), while EUR 279.0m (69.5%) related to non-life insurance (2.0% more compared to the same period in 2024). In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (42.7%), insurance of road vehicles (21.4%), health insurance (12.3%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (7.0%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 79.2m in April 2025, increasing by 42.8% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 0.4% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 51.8bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 29.0bn, bonds to EUR 19.1bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.6bn and ETFs to 118m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (9.7%) was recorded by CROBEXindustrija, while CROBEXnutris recorded the largest monthly decline (-6.6%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a slight monthly decline of -0.2%, while CROBEXtr rose by 0.4%. The CROBIS bond index recorded a monthly decrease (by 0.1%), while CROBIStr recorded an increase (by 0.1%).

KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in April, with its turnover amounting to EUR 9.1m (18.9% of the overall trade in stocks in April) and a 3.0% monthly price increase.  

INVESTMENT FIRMS

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, there were 21 legal entities authorised to provide investment services, namely 6 investment firms, 11 credit institutions and 4 investment fund management companies. The value of assets managed by investment firms increased by 6.1% on a quarterly basis, the value of assets managed by credit institutions increased by 10.8%, while the value of assets managed by investment fund management companies rose by 12.5%. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, total assets under custody of investment firms stood at EUR 1.3bn, a 17.9% increase on a quarterly basis, while the assets under custody of credit institutions increased by 10.1%, reaching EUR 24.5bn.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of April 2025, there were 118 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 3.6bn, increasing by EUR 31.2m or 0.9% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in April were positive, amounting to EUR 56.4m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 100.0m) and bond funds (EUR 2.0m), while negative net payments were recorded by feeder funds (EUR -1.0m), balanced funds (EUR -8.2m), funds categorised as “other” (EUR -11.0m) and equity funds (EUR -25.3m)

Money market funds’ net assets accounted for 29.9% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of April, bond funds made up 23.3%, funds categorised as “other” 21.5%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 15.0% and 7.8% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In April, positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded by bond funds (0.7%), money market funds (0.2%) and funds categorised as “other” (0.2%). Negative asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded by balanced funds (-0.4%), equity funds (-1.5%) and feeder funds (-1.8%).

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 217.7m (a 7.2% monthly decrease), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -7.0%.

LEASING COMPANIES

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, there were 15 leasing companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at EUR 4.3bn, a 15.3% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. At the same time, the total profit recorded by leasing companies rose by 5.5% on an annual basis, reaching EUR 19.3m. The outstanding contract value of active contracts in the operating lease segment rose by 13.7% at an annual level, while in the finance lease segment it increased by 16.0%. The value of newly concluded contracts in operating and finance lease decreased by 8.6% and 2.5% respectively at an annual level.

FACTORING COMPANIES

At the end of the first quarter of 2025, there were three factoring companies operating on the market. Their total assets stood at HRK 15.6m, while their profit reached HRK 0.2m. The transaction volume was still dominated by classic factoring totalling EUR 21.4m (84.6% of the transactions), as were receivables, with classic factoring amounting to EUR 8.6m (78.6% of the receivables) at the end of the first quarter.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.